Childhood Obesity - Do you have an overweight child? We offer tips to help your child lose weight and get fit!

Think that a few extra pounds might provide potentially life-saving protection in the case of an automobile accident?

Think again.

Researchers with the University of Virginia found that overweight individuals have no advantage because they have greater maximum forward pitch when they are thrown forward during an accident, and because they are more likely to be injured in their ribs and lungs.

The researchers had to use cadavers because there are no obese crash dummies.

The study appeared in the journal Obesity.

Labels: overweight, research, accidents, safety

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Taiwan may become one of the first countries in the world to ban junk food advertisements on children's television. The government also plans to impose a junk food tax after the bill banning commercials is passed.

Almost 30 percent of Taiwanese children are overweight or obese.

Labels: overweight, causes of childhood obesity, commercials

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A Pennsylvania college has created a controversy because it is requiring overweight and obese students to enroll in a fitness course that students of normal weight can avoid -- and has threatened to withhold degrees from students who fail to complete the course.

A Nov. 30 CNN article by Elizabeth Landau provided a glimpse into two divergent opinions about the school's policy:

Students at Lincoln University with a body mass index of 30 or above, reflective of obesity, must take a fitness course that meets three hours per week. Those who are assigned to the class but do not complete it cannot graduate. ...

"I didn't come to Lincoln to be told that my weight is not in an acceptable range," [LU student Tina Lawson wrote in an editorial in the school paper]. "I came here to get an education which, as a three-time honor student, is something I have been doing quite well, despite the fact that I have a slightly high Body Mass Index."

But James DeBoy, chairman of the school's Department of Health and Physical Education, says the requirement is just like courses to help students' communications or math proficiency. The faculty also has a priority to be honest with students, he said.

"We, as educators, must tell students when we believe, in our heart of hearts, when certain factors, certain behaviors, attitudes, whatever, are going to hinder that student from achieving and maximizing their life goals," he said.

Labels: overweight, students, college, bmi

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About two dozen new books aimed at teenagers feature characters that are overweight. Many of these stories do not end with the characters losing weight, but rather they find success and acceptance just the way they are.

The following are three examples of this emerging sub-genre:

• In All about Vee, a young woman who weighs over 200 pounds goes to Hollywood to become an actress, competing with starlets who wear size zero.
  
• In Food, Girls and Other Things I Can't Have, a 300-pound high school sophomore gives up his dream of becoming an athlete.
  
• In Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies, a plus-sized eighth grader enters a beauty contest.

Erin Dionne, the author of Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies says that she receives five or six letters a week from readers who identify with her character.

Average-looking kids who don't have a weight problem can hide their issues behind a façade that is normal, Dionne said in an Aug. 30 Salisbury Post article. However, an overweight heroine is already dealing with other people's perception of her, whether that is the focus of the book or not.

Labels: overweight, books, acceptance

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Overweight children do not necessarily have high cholesterol levels, according to new research from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Joyce Lee and Dr. Matthew Davis used national data on thousands of children to find out if body mass was related to cholesterol levels. They found that if doctors screen all overweight or obese children, they would identify about half of those with abnormal cholesterol, but they would also unnecessarily test 30 percent of the children.

In July 2008, the American Academy of Pediatrics advised pediatricians to screen all overweight children.

"Our results indicate that the AAP guidelines for cholesterol screenings in kids may need to be revised," said Dr. Lee. "Otherwise we may be missing high cholesterol in some kids and unnecessarily testing others."

The study appeared in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Labels: overweight, research, cholesterol

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Exercising can reduce belly fat, even if the exerciser is not dieting, according to a new study from the University of Illinois.

Dr. Jeffrey Woods divided mice into four groups: One group exercised, one group was sedentary, one group was put on a low-fat diet without exercise, and one group followed both a low-fat diet and an exercise regime.

"The surprise was that the combination of diet and exercise did not yield dramatically different and better results than diet or exercise alone," said Vicki Vieira, lead author of the study.

Only the sedentary mice had a significant increase in belly fat, which is linked to heart disease and diabetes.

"Even if you struggle with dieting, we believe you can still reduce the likelihood of developing obesity-related inflammatory diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, by adding a modest amount of exercise to your life," said Dr. Woods.

This study appeared in the American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Labels: overweight, weight_loss, exercise

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Dr. David Kessler believes that the food industry is manipulating the American public in ways that are similar to the tobacco industry. He believes that they promote foods that are high in salt, sugar and fat -- a deadly combination that does not satisfy the appetite, but actually stimulates hunger.

Dr. Kessler has degrees in medicine and law, and has served as dean of the Yale University School of Medicine as well as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where he was known for taking a tough stand on tobacco companies. Today, he is the author of a new book, "The End of Overeating."

"I used to think I ate to feel full," said Dr. Kessler, who admitted to having his own weight-related struggles. "Now we have the science that shows were eating to stimulate ourselves."

Dr. Kessler said he believes that foods that are high in salt, fat, and sugar actually alter brain chemistry in the same ways that addictive drugs do. The sight or thought of such foods can stimulate dopamine in the pleasure centers of the brain. For this reason, you can crave these foods when you pass a restaurant or see a food advertisement on television even if you are not hungry.

Dr. Kessler says that food deprivation only heightens the way the brain views food, which is why most diets do not work.

"How do we explain to America what is going on?" he asked. "How do we break through and help people understand how their brains have been captured?"

Labels: overweight, overeating, food_companies

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Babies today are 59% more likely to be overweight than those born in 1989, according to a study from Cornell University. Part of the problem is that 60% of women gain too much weight during pregnancy - a factor associated with chubbier babies.

Dr. Christine Olson, professor of community nutrition, followed 208 mothers and their children during their pregnancies. About 40% of the babies whose mothers were overweight or obese during pregnancy were overweight by age 3.

To protect babies from being overweight, Dr. Olson recommends that all women should limit their pregnancy weight gain to under 30 pounds and breastfeed their children.

Labels: overweight, fatter, babies

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A British study has found that teenagers who are overweight or obese are more likely to have considered suicide than those who are at a healthy weight. The study, which was conducted through the University of Liverpool, involved a survey of 799 students of various weights.

"A linear relationship existed between suicidal ideal and BMI, with overweight and obese adolescents experiencing the highest rates of 26.8 percent - more than twice the average prevalence for the entire group."

The study also found that teenagers who had high suicidal risks also scored higher on the Eating Disorders Inventory - showing they're also at greater risk of developing eating disorders. Source: MediLexicon News

Labels: overweight, mental_health, suicide

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A study led by Dr. Matthew M. Davis at the University of Michigan found that many parents underestimate their children's weight and overall health. The study was conducted using an online survey in which parents reported their children's height and weight and asked parents if their children were overweight or obese.

"Among parents with an obese, or extremely overweight child ages 6 to 11, 43 percent said their child was 'about the right weight', 37 percent responded 'slightly overweight' and 13 percent said 'very overweight'."

Dr. Goutham Rao of the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh noted that obesity is more difficult to identify in children, and that - because of the social stigma - some parents simply aren't willing to admit that their children are overweight.

Labels: parenting, overweight, pediatricians

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Spending more time in physical education classes helps overweight girls, according to a study funded by the National Center for Health Care Management.

Researchers kept track of the heights, weights and body mass indexes (BMIs) of 9750 children from kindergarten through first grade. In kindergarten, the majority of children spent 35 minutes a week in physical education. By first grade that increased to 68 minutes a week. Overweight girls and girls at risk for overweight benefited the most from the increase - they reduced their BMIs by a statistically significant amount. However, the extra time in physical education classes did not have much effort on overweight boys or normal weight childrens measurements.

Because of this study, Dr. Ashlesha Datar and her co-author Dr. Roland Sturm concluded that if all kindergarteners in the United States got at least five hours of physical education per week, the prevalence of overweight among girls would decrease by 4.3 percentage points (43%), and the prevalence of children at risk for overweight would decrease by 9.2 percentage points (60%). Currently only 16% of kindergarteners have physical education every day.

This was one of the first and only studies that proves increased time in physical education may help fight America's obesity epidemic among children.

This study appears in the American Journal of Public Health, September 2004 issue.

Labels: overweight, causes of childhood obesity, teens

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Reducing teen obesity is a worthy effort -- but a majority of doctors believe that stomach surgery for overweight teens is not a good idea, according to a new study published in the journal Obesity Surgery.

Researchers from the University of Michigan used a random sample of pediatricians and family physicians, asking them their opinion of bariatric surgery for adolescents. Half said they would not consider recommending it.

"Physicians worry whether the risks outweigh the benefits," said Susan Woolford, lead author. "How long adolescents will be able to sustain the weight loss and what the psychological outcomes would be in their futures are questions that are still being explored."
 

Labels: overweight, teenagers, surgeries

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It may be easier to tell if a child is overweight simply by measuring his neck rather than calculating his or her body mass index (BMI), according to a new study from the University of Michigan.

• Dr. Olubkola Nafia studied of ,children ages 6 to 18 years old and found a link between larger necks and above average BMIs.
• A six-year-old boy whose neck circumference is greater than 11.22 inches and a girl that age whose neck is over 10.62 inches are probably overweight.
• For 18 year olds, those figures are 15.35 for boys, and 13.62 for girls.

Dr. Nafia pointed out that measuring the neck is a very quick procedure for doctors to perform, and not as invasive as measuring the waist.

The study appears in the journal Pediatrics.
 

Labels: childhood_obesity, overweight, bmi

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The heaviest American children are getting even heavier every year, according to a new study in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity.

• Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1988 to 2004.
• The waistlines and weights of children in the heaviest groups increased over the past 10 years at the highest rate.
• For example, children's waistlines grew an average of one inch during the period of the study, but for children in the top percentile for being overweight, average waistlines increased by three inches.
   

Labels: overweight, obese teens

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